Afraid of the Dark
by Harlequin Quill
Summary: Nearly all things have an irrational fear of the dark, but what if it's not irrational at all? There's something there when you turn out the lights. Pitch Black and OC, takes place after the movie.


She had made a mistake.

Katie knew it as soon as her eyes flicked around the room for the first time in hours. Night had fallen outside, a long time ago. All the other lights in the house had been turned out. The only light left came from the living room and the TV rolling the credits for the movie that had just ended. She vaguely remembered her mother's voice telling her to go to bed, but more vividly remembered the flashes of light and sound coming from the climax of the movie. Now she was the only soul awake in the quiet house. And soon she would have to turn out the light.

Inwardly, Katie sighed at herself; ten years old and she was _still _jumping at shadows and running from the dark.

Her mom and dad told her a long time ago that there was nothing to be afraid of. _But, then_ Katie thought, _there are things adults don't understand_. One of them was the dark. Still, she didn't want to frustrate them, or worse, let them think she was a total fraidy-cat. So she pretended to be over her fear.

She wasn't over it.

Not at all.

But they didn't need to know that.

She had been afraid of the dark for as long as she could remember. There had been no explanation for it, no accidental exposure to slasher movies or horror stories told by friends in the middle of the night, just the instinctual primal fear of the dark. In the dark, familiar corners and objects were turned into hiding places for her nightmares. Her house was old and made strange noises in the silence of the night. Sometimes her closet door creaked open all by itself. When that happened, Katie would tuck her toes under her blanket and pull the sheets up all the way up to her chin. If her toes didn't show, she reasoned, nothing would get her. Katie never went out after dark if she could help it, or stayed up late by herself. She hate, hate, hated the dark, but sometimes, like now, she couldn't do anything about it. The light-switch was on the opposite wall from the stairs. She couldn't leave them on, and her mom had turned off the hall lights already, and that switch was all the way upstairs.

Now, sitting on the couch alone, she contemplated her plan. She would get up, turn off the light, and head for the stairs. She wouldn't stop or turn around, but go straight to her room and jump in her bed, and make sure her feet where tucked up under her blankets so that nothing could get her.

Easy … right?

She got up and, bided her time turning off the TV, removing the DVD from the player and putting it away before going over to the light-switch. She counted to three while she reviewed her plan.

_One, _

_Two,_

_Threee…_

One little snap and all the light in the room was gone.

Chills raced up and down her spine.

_Calm down, Calm down! _Katie ordered herself, _There's nothing there…_ She flinched. She felt like she was being watched. This was why the shadows always frightened her:

To Katie they seemed thick, alive even. _They moved._ She wanted to run for the stairs so badly it made her knees tremble.

_NO! I can't run!_ She remembered reading that predators loved to chase things, and if you ran they attacked. She held her breath, plastered and indifferent look on her face- she couldn't let them see she was scared- and turned slowly around toward the stairs. She felt the shadows stirring, watching, and waiting to see if she would run. She let out a shaky breath, she would. Not. Run.

She took carefully measured steps, not to fast, not running, but, oh, she was going so slowly!

She could feel the dark collecting behind her, and knew instinctively that the shadows were following her. She could feel the emptiness drawing closer and closer.

_There's nothing there, nothing there, nothingthere, nothingther! _she chanted in her head.

She didn't believe it.

She didn't believe it because she could feel the stirring of unseen things in the air.

Just up ahead she could see the beginning of the stairs just a few steps away now, a blacker tunnel in the darkness.

Almost there! The shadows were too close. As soon as she got to the stairs she would let herself run; in fact, she might sprint all the way to her room. She was only five steps away now.

Four

Three_,_

_Soo_ close

Two…

The hairs prickled on the back of her neck and she froze, breath catching in her throat. Her eyes and ears strained in the darkness, but couldn't find anything. She couldn't turn to look; she was too afraid, but she knew what she heard.

Someone had laughed.

It had been faint, just on the edge of hearing, she stood stone still, breathing shallowly, trying to hear it again, but all she heard was the hammering of her own heart.

Her stomach twisted itself in knots. She waited, seconds ticked by in a silent eternity. The sound did not come again. She could feel the shadows creeping forward.

Suddenly, she sprang for the stairs, taking the first two steps at a sprint. She imagined the darkness swooping in behind her, almost heard the laughing again, sensed rather than saw the shadowy creatures nipping at her heels.

Something caught her ankle on the first step, and a scream clawed its way up her throat and bubbled on her tongue, only to die on her lips and turn into near-silent whooshing of air. She caught herself on her elbows and fell onto her shoulder. Pain sprang up where her joints had connected with the edge of the stairs.

Through the pain, she sensed the shadows gathering around her and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, ducking her head like they taught you to do in school during tornado drills. She whimpered.

_Nothingthere, nothingthere, nothing, nothing! Nothingnothingnothing..._

Something brushed against her hair.

The bottom dropped out of her stomach and her heartbeat kicked into double-time, fluttering like a caged bird. She cringed.

Someone chuckled, right behind her. She flinched in surprise. _Don't turn around. Don't look! It'll go away. No, it couldn't go away it wasn't even there! Not there, not there nothere…._

"Of course I'm here," The voice said. It was a deep voice, cold, dark like the shadows it came from. Katie's eyes snapped open and she twisted around.

The man was closer than she had thought he was, and when she turned her head she came face to face with him as he kneeled next to her.

He was thin and wild looking. His clothes where black and blended with the shadows, but he looked like he was wearing a cloak or a long coat. Standing he would have been much taller than she was, but he had bent over a great deal to bring her to his level. His hair was black too and slick, his skin an odd grey color. He looked wrong, not ugly, yet terrifying. Worst of all were his eyes; they had a strange golden glow like a cats, but the gold was blackened around the edges and the dark parts of his eye seemed to swallow up all the light of life, leaving a cruel, cold glimmer. Dark circles under his eyes gave the man a haunted appearance.

Her eyes went wide.

"You can see me…." The man spoke again, sounding curious. He watched her intently like cats did with the mice they wanted to eat. Katie skittered backwards, trying to climb farther up the stairs, but something tightened and tugged on her ankle.

She didn't look down; somehow she already knew what she would see. It wasn't the man who held her foot, for both of his hands where in sight, one on his knee the other on the step helping to support his stooped figure. No. it was the shadows that held her there and wouldn't let her go. Her nose started to tingle and water sprang into her eyes.

The man didn't seem to notice, even though his eyes had not left her the entire time. "You can hear me…" He raised his hand and slowly, deliberately reached out to her. Katie flinched back as far as she could go, until her back hit the wall of the staircase, but he only brushed a piece of hair out of her face. She blinked away the tears that clouded her vision and saw that the man was smiling, and that his teeth were very white and slightly pointed.

"Still afraid of the dark…" he sounded _pleased_. Katie trembled, but otherwise found she was unable to move. He lowered his hand and with one long pale finger wiped a tear from her cheek. "Clever child."

Her cheek was cold where his finger had brushed against it, and terror washed over her in waves. Somehow, she imagined he_ knew_ that, and that's why he smiled again.

He stood, still smiling, and looked down at her from his full height. "Perhaps we'll meet again. Until then…" He paused and looked about to laugh again. "Remember what lives in the dark."

Katie watched, mute with horror, as the shadows collected around him and swallowed him up.

Without him, the darkness seemed thinner somehow, and she felt the shadows draw back ever so slightly. Her ankle was suddenly free. Katie stood and flew up the stairs, rushed through the hallway and threw herself into bed, pulling the blankets down over her toes and burying her head. There, cocooned in her blankets, she cried, wishing that her mom or maybe her dad would hear her and come in, that they would have heard her fall and woken up… She cried until she fell asleep.

Then the nightmares came.


End file.
